Page 40 of Omega's Virtue: Part Two (The Hartwell Sisters Saga 3)

“I’m leaving,” I said, though I suspected neither heard me. A truly odd pair.

I arrived home, still smelling of Puck and Polly and my own sweat.

Meeker stood at the door, scowling and tapping his foot on the marble. “You smell.”

“I know. Do me a favour and ask for a bath? There is a good man.”

“You are lucking out that his lor’ship and the lady like you.”

“What? I rub you the wrong way?”

“Aye. Any time I see you, I’m reminded of the hours I lost hunting you down across London. Like I’m a gun dog—”

“Meeker you are a hired gun, and my guess says you are a dog with the ladies—”

“And gents,” he interrupted.

“And the gents. So calling yourself a gun dog is fitting.”

“Jack. Please stop antagonising him.”

“Yes, please…” Meeker smirked.

“Meeker.” Pax’s bark had the batman jumping and baring his neck faster than I’d ever seen, but no wonder, when I’d never heard Pax have quite such a pointed bark. “Go for a walk. Jack come here.”

I bristled at his tone. At the fact he was alpha’ing me in front of someone like Meeker. So I did not move. I held my place, staring the other alpha down, refusing to break eye contact even as the scent of aggression—his and mine—started to clog the air.

I only knew that Meeker had left because of the draught caused when he opened the door onto the street.

“Jack—”

“Yes, my lord?”

My whole being felt electric. Something sizzled in the air. Aggression and arousal. Both a potent and heady mix under any circumstances, but when it was between Pax and me, I could not but be drawn in. Climbing the stairs to where he stood on the landing, I kept that eye contact. I might be going to him, but this was not submission—I did not think it possible for us to submit to each other. I prowled. Two predators prowling, circling, preparing to do battle.

My foot hit the landing at the same moment Pax grabbed me by the throat and shoved me against the wall. His face twisted in his rage.

“I could smell you from there. You smell like another alpha and omega… Who?” He slammed me against the wall again, my head bounced with the force. “Who did you allow to touch you? Who!?”

“Pax…” I choked. “I—”

“No excuses.” He released me just enough that I could drag in a breath that burnt my lungs.

“I stink of sweat. You know how scents stick to sweat. Dammit. Puck. Polly. Fuck,” I gasped. “I sparred with Puck. Met Polly and then… came right here.”

“You shouldn’t smell so strongly of them.”

“Pax.” I offered him my own warning growl. “You think I’d do that?”

He shook his head, and I watched as his shoulders relaxed.

“Remember, I went to make him a proposal. A fight to draw Stimpson out for the purse. Just as we talked about. Stimpson owes Drexler and the Hell money. Puck didn’t say how much, but I believe we are united in the desire to do over with him.”

“I–” Pax stepped back, his face drained of all colour. “I’m sorry. I–”

I put a hand at the base of his throat, as I might with Beatrice. “What triggered this, Benedict?”

He shook his head. “Beatrice. She is holding back. I know you would not, but I cannot seem to purge the jealousy. You smell of another alpha and omega–”

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